2^G cook's first voyage 1769. 



stances, we observed that, when they were conversing 

 with each other, they joined signs to their words, 

 which were so expressive that a stranger might easily 

 apprehend their meaning. 



In counting from ten they repeat the name of that 

 number, and add the word more ; ten, and one more, 

 is eleven ; ten, and two more, twelve : and so of the 

 rest, as we say one and twenty, two and twenty. 

 When they come to ten and ten more, they have a 

 new denomination, as we say a score ; and by these 

 scores they count till they get ten of them, when 

 they have a denomination for two hundred ; and we 

 never could discover that they had any denomination 

 to express a greater number : neither, indeed, do 

 they seem to want any ; for ten of these amount to 

 two thousand, a greater number than they can ever 



apply. . . ^ ^ ^ . 



In measuring distance they are much more deficient 



than in computing numbers, having but one term, 

 which answers to fathom ; when they speak of dis- 

 tances from place to place, they express it, like the 

 Asiatics, by the time that is required to pass it. 



Their language is soft and melodious ; it abounds 

 w^ith vowels, and we easily learnt to pronounce it : 

 but found it exceedingly difficult to teach them to 

 pronounce a single word of ours ; probably not only 

 from its abounding in consonants, but from some pe- 

 culiarity in its structure ; for Spanish and Italian 

 words, if ending in a vowel, they pronounced with 

 great facility. 



Whether it is copious, we were not sufficiently ac- 

 quainted with it to know ; but it is certainly very 

 imperfect, for it is almost totally without inflexion, 

 both of nouns and verbs. Few of the nouns have 

 more than one case, and few of the verbs more than 

 one tense ; yet we found no great difficulty in mak- 

 ing ourselves mutually understood, however strange 

 it may appear in speculation. 



They iav^ however, certain qffixay which, though 



